Scotland's Music: Karen Matheson: Still Time

What draws a musician to a song or tune, to wanting to learn it and sing it?

That varies with each artist, of course, and sometimes with each song. For Karen Matheson, it was the poetry and image in James Grant’s song Cassiopeia Coming Through that got her thinking how she’d like to present it. It’s a piece with an abundance of both, along with enough room musically for Matheson and producer and partner Donald Shaw to open things up with ideas that flow between jazz and folk. They chose the song to open Matheson’s album Still Time. “Cassiopeia is a beautifully crafted call for change, for hope, for moving forward,” Matheson says.

The way the album came about is in some ways a story of hope and moving forward. Matheson is lead singer and a founding member of the top folk band Capercaillie, with whom she sings in both Gaelic and English.. She also keeps note of songs she would like to record in other ways. This is her fifth solo album, one she had begun working on some time ago.

‘’Ten years ago I was working on a bunch of different tracks, unsure of what direction to go in when I found myself facing a number of personal challenges including the loss of both my parents,” Matheson says. “It felt right to concentrate on the Gaelic songs of my childhood, in tribute to what had given true shape to my life.” The result was the all Gaelic album called Urram, a word which means respect in Gaelic.

“We were then left with a body of work, waiting in the wings to be resurrected at a later date with my sore heart eased and my faith in humanity restored,” she continues. Then came the unexpected pause of lockdown.

“While the world paused, birdsong soared and banana bread baked, Still Time was reborn with the help of some familiar, brilliant musicians who could accommodate the home-recording situation we worked through lockdown,” she says. Those musicians include Shaw and Grant as well as frequent members of Matheson’s road band Hannah Fisher on backing vocals and fiddle, and Sorren MacLean on backing vocals and guitar, along with Alyn Cosker and James MacKintosh on percussion, John Doyle on guitar and bouzouki, Fraser Fifield on saxophone, Anna Massie on mandolin, Ewen Vernal on bass, and others.

The gathering of songs is at once focused and varied.

They are thoughtfully and beautifully sung and backed with taste and creativity. Each track will reveal more riches with repeated listening. Highlights include

A thoughtful tale of life in the Highlands coming to terms with the clearances Recovery is a story with both historic and current resonance. It was written by Callum and Rory MacDonald of Runrig. Matheson’s take imbues the story with powerful yet understated grace.

The Aragon Mill is a story of loss, change, uncertainty, and perhaps, just a thread of hope. American writer and activist Si Kahn wrote it, inspired by the lives of those affected by the closure of the cotton mill in Aragon, Georgia, in the US. It’s a song which has spoken to Matheson for some years; she’s often included it in live performance. “I’ve loved it from the very first time I heard it sung by the brilliant Andy Irvine with Planxty, on their album Words and Music in the early 80s,” she writes in the sleeve notes.

Matheson chose four songs by James Grant for this album; one, in fact, came about because of request she made to the musician. Of the song called Little Gun she writes “This little beauty penned by James was in response to my request for something reflecting the power of parenting, and the raw emotion it brings.” There is the memorable idea “it’s not the fact that I made you, it’s the fact that you made me,” as part of the lyrics, and there’s a chorus --I will let you seek that out -- which will linger in your mind, as well.

Then there’s the title track, Still Time. It was, Matheson says, written by her partner and the album’s producer Donald Shaw twenty years ago. Life’s changes and choices, and the lasting fleeting nature of both those things, come in for consideration in the song. “The words “Still Time” resonated with me while collating the tracks for this album in lockdown firstly on an obvious level of time standing still but also on another level in that there was still time to finish this project which had been lying unfinished for so long!” Matheson explains.

There are other gems: The Diamond Ring finds lively contributions from Dirk Powell on banjo and Hannah Fisher on fiddle and backing vocals, John Doyle and Sorren MacLean on guitar; Cassiopeia Coming Through, another piece written by James Grant, opens the album with a mystical, jazz tinged, image filled story; things are drawn to a close with the Robert Burns classic Ae Fond Kiss as sung at the close of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Still Time is an album with songs of reflection, connection, courage, creativity, and grace. The songs are presented with those qualities as well.

Photograph of Karen Matheson in studio courtesy of Compass Records; photographs of Karen Matheson in performance at Celtic Connections in Glasgow by Kerry Dexter, made with permission of festival, artist, and venues involved. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Karen Matheson's album Urram
Capercaillie’s album At the Heart of It All,
History into song: Capercaillie’s album Glenfinnan
Another artist to know: Cathie Ryan’s album Through Wind & Rain

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Celtic Connections 2021 Continues: What's on 27 January through 1 February

Traditionally, at Celtic Connections there would be more than 100,000 listeners enjoying the work of more than 300 artists across Glasgow city centre at this time of year.

As with most things to do with music, things are different this year. Different, yes, but equally interesting. Roots music from acid croft to Sudanese blues, generous helpings of music in Gaelic and Scots, song and tune from rising stars and established creators: it’s all continuing as Celtic Connections heads into the closing days of its 2021 edition.

Tickets, both all access passes and individual tickets (you can view events for 7 days after first broadcast) are still available and there are several no cost events too, including a programme for small children and one that is dementia friendly.

Highlights of what’s on offer 27 January through 1 February:

“Authentic, electrifying and unlike anything you’ve seen before... that’s the way we do it in the Western Isles” is how the Stornoway based trio Peat & Diesel describe themselves. A fisherman, an electrician and a delivery driver who only got a band together so they could play a couple of gigs down the local pub have been taking their rip roaring approach to wider stages-- this time, to Celtic Connections on 27 January.

Later that evening, festival favourites Cherish the Ladies offer their take on the music of Ireland.

From the Wild Atlantic Way in County Clare Joanie Madden on flute, whistles, and harmony vocals, Mary Coogan on guitar, Mirella Murray on accordion, Kathleen Boyle on piano, Nollaig Casey on fiddle, and Lunasa’s Trevor Hutchinson on upright bass recorded a special socially distanced concert for Celtic Connections. Kate Purcell, Don Stiffe, Bruce Foley, and Seámus Ó’Flatharta add their voices and David Geaney and Seámus Ó’Flatharta bring dance to a programme that is both innovative and classic. Sharing the evening’s bill with Cherish are the Scottish quartet Charlie Grey, Sally Simpson, Owen Sinclair and Joseph Peach, who are Westward the Light.

Remember the pipers of Tryst, who walked up Buchanan Street to open the festival? They’re back as part of of an evening featuring varied forms of piping. In their set the ten pipers of Tryst showcase new music inspired by the piobaireachd tradition. Also on the evening Finlay MacDonald brings together a local showcase of music focusing on the innovative Scottish and Irish bellows-piping traditions, and piping from BBC Young Traditional Musician of the year 2020 Ali Levack shows up as part of at set from Project SMOK, a trio who are at their most comfortable pushing boundaries across musical genres.

Transatlantic Sessions is always a top ticket at the festival; this long running collaboration between artists from both sides of the Atlantic features continuing participants including Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick, James Mackintosh, Jerry Douglas, John Doyle and Donald Shaw and an always a changing cast of artists joining them. This year festival favorites Euan Burton, Julie Fowlis, and Kris Drever will join from Scotland with Molly Tuttle, Tim O’Brien, Alison Brown, and Stuart Duncan chiming in from Nashville. Word comes that recorded performances from earlier years of Transatlantic Sessions will also be in the mix.

Finishing off the evening of 29 January, a journey to Quebec brings in music from Le Vent du Nord , Grosse Isle. and De Temps Antan.

At the weekend, workshops continue, as does Claire Hastings’s programme for under fives and their parents, along with radio broadcasts of the Danny Kyle Open Stage concerts on Celtic Music Radio. Presented by Liz Clark, DKOS has adapted to an online format in style: six acts from the festival long event go to through to the final broadcast on 31 January. Exploring ideas of home and place, Steven Blake’s New Voices commission uses found sounds and samples to weave lush textures around a simple piano spine.

Another final takes place at the weekend: the BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2021 concert. Six finalists will offer sets -- there’s no charge to view this concert -- with song, harp, pipes, piano, and fiddle. Among Young Trad winners in earlier years are Gillian Frame, Robyn Stapleton, Emily Smith, Anna Massie, and Benedict Morris; many finalists have gone on to fine careers in music as well.

Innovative music drawing from varied roots traditions fills the bill on Sunday evening. Dean Owens’s gift for storytelling and the landscapes of the American southwest fuse in a set of music from his most recent recording. Originally from the high desert of Northern New Mexico, multi-instrumentalist Cahalen Morrison returns to the festival as a solo act with Americana based music. Rhiannon Giddens has electrified Celtic Connections audiences with her voice, banjo, and fiddle solo and in performance with the Celtic Blues Orchestra. She returns in creative collaboration with Italian pianist and percussionist Francesco Turrisi. Bringing creativity from Scotland to the evening is top singer and guitarist Kris Drever, who is a fine songwriter as well an a gifted interpreter of the music of others.

On Monday evening, it is the Western Isles and Gaelic language and music to the fore. A night of music and song from North Uist, celebrating the island’s musical talent and heritage, will see top artists including Julie Fowlis and Ellen MacDonald, the Taigh Chearsabhagh House Band featuring Padruig Morrison, Anna Black and Seonaidh MacIntyre, up-and-coming talents Eilidh Lamb, Robert John MacInnes, Doireann Marks and Fionnlagh Mac a’ Phiocair, and the legendary Duncan MacKinnon presenting a programme entirely in Gaelic bringing to life the language and culture which of the Outer Hebrides. This evening is presented by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre in partnership with the Centre for Island Creativity.

There’s more to discover as you explore Celtic Connections 2021’s digital first festival. Festival organizers and production crew from Beezer Studios in Glasgow are doing excellent work in support creativity and presenting the work of musicians. Celtic Connections is delivered by the charity Glasgow Life and is funded by Glasgow City Council, Creative Scotland and The Scottish Government Festivals EXPO Fund.

Tickets, schedules, and more information at the Celtic Connections website

You may also wish to see
At Wandering Educators From Glasgow, virtually: Celtic Connections begins
Music, Heart, Hope: Celtic Connections begins
Celtic Connections 2021: what’s coming in the first 6 days

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Celtic Connections 2021: a look at what's to come 21-26 January

Celtic Connections began brilliantly, with pipers walking through Buchanan Street into the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with a tune paying tribute to pioneers. They were met by the specially organized Celtic Celtic Connections Big Band 2021. This group of Scotland’s top folk players was a constant through opening night, brining energy and context to performances from Glasgow and beyond.

The first week has unfolded with grace and energy in line with and beyond those opening moments.

What’s next, though?

Highlights to look out for during day six through twelve, 21 through 26 January, at Celtic Connections 2021:

Before I go further I will also point out that tickets are available, both for individual events and an all access concerts pass. Details at the Celtic Connections web site. Also to note: times mentioned are Glasgow/GMT; when you pirchase a ticket though, conerts available for seven days after first broadcast.

Ross Ainslie is a player of pipes, whistles and cittern who has release four albums of his own and is well known as a band member collaborator, and composer. A founding member of Treacherous Orchestra, a contributor to Hamish Napier’s award winning album The Woods, Ainslie of regularly appears with Salsa Celtica, India Alba, Tim Edey, and others. This night he fronts his own band.

High energy band Talisk bring a trad based lively presence, while top folk-trad group Manran will offer its always creative take on Scotland’s traditions into the evening’s mix as well. Top Scots songwriter and singer Siobhan Miller will bring her thoughtful music to the mix, as will singer songwriter Beth Malcolm.

The next evening, 22 January, will feature the music of Blazin’ Fiddles. Blaze they do. Fiddlers Bruce MacGregor, Rua MacMillan Jenna Reid, and Kristan Harvey, Anna Massie on fiddle and guitar, and Angus Lyon on keyboards are as worth watching and listening to for the quality of their interactions as for the top quality tunes. Note, too that the Blazers are offering workshops during the day in the days leading up to this concert. Xavier Diaz and friends will bring their own energy and style, recorded in their native northern Spain in Santiago de Compostela. Deirdre Graham will add Gaelic song to the progamme.

23 January sees a daytime filled with workshops for learners and improvers, and an evening that honours varied and international aspects of tradition. The evening focuses on a concert by The Womanly Voices of Jodhpur Riff which was recorded in Rajastan in India, with eight women who individually are leaders and groundbreakers in their tradition. The Nordic countries join in through the band Dreamers’ Circus with a contribution recorded at their home in Denmark. South Uist native and Glasgow resident Kathleen MacInnes brings Gaelic song into the mix. Later in the evening, there is a separate concert which finds Scotland’s Admiral Fallow band offering their indie take on Scotland’s music.

On Sunday afternoon the 24th it’s time for the next part of the New Voices strand. Charlie Stewart has found inspiration for this set of music from time spent at home with his parents and time in an unusually quiet Glasgow during the pandemic.

In the evening, there’s a late night concert as Argentinian-Swedish singer José González brings his music from Gothenburg, Sweden. Before that, though, the five women of The Kinnaris Quintet will, if history serves, tear up the stage with their high quality and high energy take on trad shared through fiddle guitar, and mandolin, and The Secret Sisters duo bring music from the Americana side of things. Music from the isle of Mull is featured as well as An Tobar Presents brings performances from Sorren MacLean, Hannah Fisher, Roody Woomble, and Mairearad Green.

On 25 January James Grant & the Hallelujah String Quartet will perform a set supported by multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer Siobhan Wilson and nu-folk singer-songwriter Zoë Bestel.

It isn’t on the Celtic Connections roster of video performance, but Karen Matheson and Eddi Reader, both longtime festival favourites and two of the most well loved and accomplished singers in Scotland, will be part of a program about the music of Robert Burns (it is Burns night after all) available on BBC Radio Scotland.

On theTuesday 26th January, the four piece band Fara with roots in Orkney, will be on the bill along with folk trio Assynt, fiddler Chloë Bryce and singer Amy Papiransky. Rachel Walker, who writes and sings and in both Gaelic and English, will be adding in her voice, as well.

You might also want to look at the offerings at Celtic Music Radio, which is hosting on air and online broadcasts of the nightly Danny Kyle Open Stage concerts. These gigs feature up and coming artists from across Scotland and are always highly popular in person at the festival. Celtic Music Radio will also be broadcasting three days of Celtic on Campus earlier in the day (it’s a lunchtime event in Glasgow) and a bit earlier in the week, from 20 through 22 January.

The Celtic Connections web site has ticketing and access details for all of their events. The festival runs through the beginning of February, so there’s more to come...

Photographs of Celtic Connections Big Band and Fara by Gaelle Beri; photograph of Karen Matheson by Kerry Dexter

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Scotland's Music: Steall/Torrent from Ewen Henderson

Ewen Henderson has been part of many aspects of the music of Scotland, from playing with the Battlefield Band and Manran, to studying with Aongas Grant Sr to writing music for film to researching music in the archive at the School of Scottish Studies. He comes from Lochaber in the Highlands, growing up in a musical family and along the way picking up skills on fiddle, viola, piano, Highland pipes and small pipes, harmonium, whistles, and singing in both English and Gaelic.

When he set out to make what would become his album Steall/Torrent. , he thought to make a work that would offer a curated journey comprised of pieces carefully structured to reflect these many interests and experiences.

As he began, the music took him in a different direction.

It did have its origins in his first plan, but

“When that particular creative sluice is opened, one can quickly find such fine intentions overwhelmed and engulfed by the cascade of memories, impulses, and ideas released in its flow,” he writes in the sleeve notes. Hence his choice of title for the album: Steall, which means torrent in Gaelic.

The result is a journey worth the taking, moving from jigs to airs to song to waltz and back again, all the while allowing Henderson to create good stories with his mastery of numerous instruments. Keeping him company are Ewan MacPherson (who produced the project) on guitars and jaw harp, Jame Lindsay on bass, James MacKinstosh on percussion, and Thomas Gibbs on clarinet.

Through eleven tracks, music from traditional sources meets with with original compositions. The album opens that way, in fact, as the Melbourne Morning set sees the originals A Melbourne Morning and The Pneumatic Drills bookending a longtime favourite traditional jig Gillean a Drobhair/The Drover’s Lad.

Henderson points out that once he began working on the music from a different perspective than he had planned, he decided to, in keeping with the torrent idea -- dive in. “I respectfully suggest the listener do likewise,” he adds.

If you do that you will enjoy a line of melody and story which unite Henderson’s diverse musical skills. In recent years he has worked as a musical director for various projects and written music for film, both of which require a good ear for and knowledge of the stories told by sequencing music. That is a strength here as well, with those opening jigs followed by the Duncan Ban MacIntyre song Oran a’ Branndaidh, and later finds MSR, a set of fast paced pipe tunes played on the fiddle moving into the gentle Dileab na h-Aibhne.

Henderson also knows well how to evoke ideas of place and geography in his writing and playing as well. Have listen to that Dileab na h-Aibhne to discover many layers of music which do that. The title translates as The River’s Legacy. Henderson was living in Glasgow’s West End when he was asked to compose a soundtrack for documentary concerning a youth pipe band being established in the area. “It was inspired by thoughts of the River Clyde’s lasting influence on Glasgow, Scotland, and the wider world, but, in particular, the role it has played in the changing fortunes of the Gaels,” he writes. It is a piece of depth and imagination which well brings in the voice of the river and the people along it.

Camus Daraich evokes a different sort of landscape, although also a waterbound one. The title comes from a beach in the western Highlands overlooking Skye and the Small Isles, a place of childhood memories and more recent ones, as it was where Henderson’s sister Megan married Ewan Robertson. They are musicians as well: you will know them from their work with Breabach.

There is much more to explore on Steall. Henderson draws the journey to close with a tune he wrote for his wife, Maria, which was meant to be a surprise gift to her on their wedding day. That didn’t go quite as planned. I will leave you to find that amusing story in the sleeve notes (which are offered in both English and Gaelic). It’s a fine tune, though, which draws many threads of the music on Steall together and makes a closer at once spirited and gentle.

Follow the music straight through or dip in and out of Ewen Henderson’s Steall: either way, you will find engaging, thoughtful music in which to immerse yourself and emerge refreshed. A torrent indeed.

Ewen Henderson is one of the founding members of the top group Manran. Another place to hear his work, in a bit of a different context, is on their recording An Da La.

You may also wish to see
Scotland’s Music:Breabach: Frenzy of the Metting.
At Wandering Educators Music for Hope and Celebration, part of the Music for Shifting Times Series, including a song and video from Manran
Scotland’s Music:Hamish Napier: The Railway
Scotland’s Music: Julie Fowlis: Alterum.

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Scotland's music: The Woods from Hamish Napier

When you walk in a wood, what do you see? Weathered bark and new green sprouts, tall trunks and saplings, mosses, lichens, green leaves, red ones, brown ones, ones which have turned to gold, flowers, evergreen branches, yellow gorse, purple heather...

What do you hear? Bird song, the rustle of a deer as it moves through the wood, the dart of a squirrel, the voices of the waters, your own footsteps over rock and soil and leaf.

Perhaps you sense a whisper of stories of those who have walked this way before you, as well.

Hamish Napier has heard all these things, and more.

The woods he has in mind, and in experience, are those in the Cairngorms in Scotland’s Highlands.

The ideas, and the place, became resources he’d draw on the create the music for his album The Woods. Napier was commissioned to create The Woods by Cairngorms Connect, which is a joint project of RSPB Scotland, Wildland Limited, Scottish Natural Heritage, and Forestry & Land Scotland.

Through the album, Napier and his musical friends offer a journey that draws on music of Scotland’s traditions and ideas from nature, history, and language to create new stories and honour older ones.

Just as you experience light and shadow, close up views and wide ones, intricate tracery of fern and flower and boldness of high soaring tree trunks when you are in a forest, so to Napier and his musical friends reveal and share aspects of many aspects of woodlands on their journey

It used to be that children in Scotland were taught the Gaelic alphabet through learning names of trees. That comes into play as Napier chooses names for many of his tunes and draws inspiration for their creation, from different sorts of trees and the roles they play in the forest. Other aspects of woodland landscape, creatures and stories appear from time ot time as well.

Of the opening track, The Pioneer, which is tied to beith, the letter b, Napier writes “A Slow air for the beautiful birch. B is the first letter of the Early Medieval alphabet (the Ogham) which is very apt as it was one of the pioneering species to spread across the barren post ice age landscape 10 millennia ago...”

He goes on to talk of birch across the seasons, and of the uses to which it was put by Highlanders of old. You do not, of course need to know any of this to appreciate the beauty of the tune. It does give context to inspiration, creation, and connection, however. On The Pioneer, Napier plays bamboo flute and piano. He is joined by Steve Byrnes on guitar and drums, Innes Watson on fiddle and strings, Jarlath Henderson on uilleann pipes, James Lindsay on double bass, Su-a Lee on cello, and there are vocals, so to speak, from natural sounds of woodpecker, chaffinches, and swifts.

The Woods is an album that invites and rewards listening all the way through as the musicians have presented it. Much like a wander in physical woods, though, you can follow markd paths or go along other ways.

That said, several tracks I’d point out to you:

The Capercaille Rant/An Taghan is a fast paced celebration and evocation of the at times dramatic and in Napier’s words, otherworldly bird of the woods. “The giant grouse fly through the Scots pinewood with all the grace of a cannonball,” Napier writes. In nature the capercaillie’s rival is the pine martin, an taghan, “one of Scotland’s most beautiful and beloved predators.”

On The Tree of Blessings, you will hear Napier’s solo piano as he plays in tribute to the juniper. The Tree of Life/The Tree of Lightning is a a majestic and complex tune for the dair, the darach, the mighty oak. Though these days oak are more abundant in the west of Scotland than in the Cairngorms, there is archeological evidence that they were important centuries ago. Individual oak tress may in fact live for centuries. Druids and others considered the oak to be a doorway between worlds, too. More than enough from which to be drawing ideas for a tune...

Forest Folk is a tune at once lively and gentle, with a melody you’ll quickly catch on to. It is inspired by the flowers of the forest, and dedicated to those who go for a wander in the woods. “Find a big tree, lie at the foot of the trunk, and gaze up at the clouds drifting high above the branches,” Napier writes in the sleeve notes booklet, which you may gather from these excerpts I’ve ben sharing it is quite extensive and well worth repeated reading. The booklet also includes outstanding art work by Somhairle MacDonald. Take some time with his drawings, and with what Hamish Napier has written as well. Both will add to your understanding and appreciation of the music.

Hawthorne River/The Witches’ Tree begins with the voice of the River Spey and moves into tunes which, though newly composed, readily evoke Highland music of older times, as well as the presence of the river, the hawthorn, and the blackthorn.

The Tree of the Underworld speaks of the elm tree and draws on a story from 19th century forestry, I’ll leave you to seek that out through the sleeve notes. Suffice it to say that in addition to fine work on the cello, Su-a Lee plays her musical saw to haunting effect.

The March of the Lumberjills, and the letter R, ros for wild roses, give the nod to the Women’s Timber Corps, who came to work in forests during World War II. One of these women was Hamish Napier’s grandmother, who subsequently married and settled in the Highlands. The Regeneration March holds a bit more stately aspect, as befits a tune drawn from the idea of heather and forest reclaiming land which had been changed by both felling and wild fire. Calum MacCrimmon (you will know him from his work with the band Breabach) lends Gaelic singing to The Highest Willows which, though in the style of a lament, is a hopeful piece drawing many threads of the stories told in The Woods together.

There is quite a bit more to unpack and enjoy in The Woods, both in the music and the sleeve notes booklet. Both are well worth repeated exploration.

Here you may find out more about The Woods as well other projects from Hamish Napier.

You may also wish to see
Hamish Napier: The River
Hamish Napier’s album The Railway.
Eddi Reader: Cavalier
The Ledger, an album from Hamish Napier’s brother Findlay Napier and sister-in law Gillian Frame, with their friend Mike Vass

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Celtic Connections: 11 Choices for the Third Weekend of the Festival

As the Celtic Connections Festival heads into its final weekend of 2020, there is a packed schedule of concerts and workshops.Artists from Finland, Mali, the United States, Ireland, and other places as well as musicians of Scotland from Shetland to the Borders will take part.

Early on Thursday evening, Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach will present work they created while on a sailboat journey to some of Scotland’s uninhabited islands, including the Shiants and Saint Kilda. The project is called Air Iomall/On the Edge.

During the 18th and 19th centuries more than 80 percent of Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company workers came from Orkney in Scotland’s northern isles. As the Company marks its 350th anniversary, fiddle and mandolinist Graeme Rorie offers a new piece drawing on stories of these Orcadians, at the Mitchell Theatre.

Old time and American specialist Joe Newberry is well loved by festival audiences. For this return, he comes to the Strathclyde Suite at the Royal Concert Hall in partnership with Ottawa Valley step dancer, fiddler, and singer April Verch. It’s a collaboration at once high energy and thoughtful, which was a hit with audiences at the Celtic Colours International Festival this past autumn. Opening for them will be The Ledger, a trio project in which Findlay Napier, Gillian Frame, and Mike Vass, who explore a selection of Scottish songs drawn from a ledger kept by a Napier family connection.

At the Mackintosh Church, fiddle and guitar duo Hannah Fisher and Sorren Maclean offer song and tune as they open for a highly anticipated gigi from Isobel Campbell. The combination of acts should make for a Highly creative evening all round.

On Friday, the fiddles, guitar, and mandolin of Kinnaris Quintet bring their passionate and creative approach to string music to the New Auditorium.

Earlier on the Friday evening, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay offer an intimate acoustic take on their fiddle and harp music at the recital room at City Halls.

On Saturday, the four fiddlers of Rant return to the Mackintosh Church, where they recorded their recent album Portage. Svang, from festival featured country Finland, will open with harmonica music ranging from blues to classical.

Also on Saturday, Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan bring Americana influenced songs from their duo project Small Town Stories along with Scottish material from their back catalogue. They open for Dirk Powell, whose musical creativity includes Celtic, Cajun, and Appalachian music.

Sunday will find the band Rura heating things up at the Old Fruitmarket as they celebrate their tenth anniversary in the company of special guests.

Two Sunday traditions at the festival are in place this year, too. The finals of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year will see six finalists perform. It’s always a great chance to celebrate Scotland’s rising stars.

The same could be said of another tradition of the final Sunday afternoon: the Big Sing. The third weekend of the festival is when daytime workshops focus on song. This year the two days will offer chances to learn songs in Gaelic, explore beat boxing, hear and learn song of Scotland’s places, pick up some lullabyes, try out singing in chorus and more. At the conclusion of the weekend, late afternoon of the Sunday, participants are invited to gather at the main staircase at the concert hall to share a song or two or three. It’s always good fun, whatever your plans for later on the final evening of the festival may be.

You may also wish to see
Scotland’s Magic Year of Coasts and Waters
Emily Smith: Echoes
Cherish the Ladies: Heart of the Home
Celtic Colours: Heritage and Heart on Cape Breton

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Scotland's Music: Laws of Motion from Karine Polwart, Inge Thomson, and Steven Polwart

Through the songs on her album Laws of Motion,. Karine Polwart considers migration, refugees, climate change, war, childhood, uncertainty, trust, and many other things along the way. That catalogue of ideas and questions may suggest that it’d be a grim sort of journey. It’s not. Polwart’s songs are very likely to raise ideas that will stay with you though.

In the song Ophelia landscapes, waters, and skies shift and change -- much as they did in the natural world when Storm Ophelia, to date the word’s easternmost hurricane, brought wild winds, high waters, and in its aftermath Saharan dust filling the skies with haze and strange light, to Scotland and other parts of Europe. Though the song’s name might recall a specific event, Polwart’s poetic imagination takes things beyond one place in time, as does the hauntingly quiet atmosphere she and her long time musical collaborators Inge Thomson and Polwart’s brother Steven bring through backing vocals, guitar, accordion, and other instruments.

Human lives tossed about by the winds of political and social change are the threads with which Polwart weaves the stories in the title song, Laws of Motion. Adults and children on the run for many reasons, seeking safety, seeking hope. Troubles and dangers, yes, but anchor lines of love and light, and hope. As the trio sings, “Who doesn’t want another chance?”

There is change, there is questioning, and there is a recognition of the lasting power of nature to reframe and connect -- these are threads that run through the sound and the ideas on Laws of Motion.

In Cassiopeia, Polwart mixes memories of her childhood preparations for nuclear and other disasters (she grew up in Stirlingshire near Grangemouth) with recordings of official instruction of how to prepare, and takes note that when the grid goes down and human made light goes out, it’s still possible to see the stars. In Cornerstone, she visits the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth through three lives centuries apart, with thoughts on stillness listening, and time. Vivid images and intertwining music make this one of the poetic songs from the trio, on an album well filled with poetry of both lyric and musical sort.

There’s not much stillness to the current US president, that’s true. Polwart addresses this by having a conversation with the ancient rock of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the place where the president’s mother was born. I Burn But I Am Not Consumed is the title of the song, and his mother’s clan motto. The song was written just as he was coming not office; it still rings true, and to my mind is one of the best, if to the very best, song which has been written about the man and his ideas and actions.

Each song on Laws of Motion (there are more than I’ve spoken of here) is well worth your listening; news depths of ideas and music will unfold as you listen again.

Karine Polwart. comes from a background which includes degrees in philosophy and the teaching of that subject to children, and experience as a social worker. Before setting out on a solo music career she sang with the Battlefield Band and with Malinky. Her own work has won awards; her songs have been recorded by other artists, she’s written music for film and created her own stage project, Wind Resistance, which later became an album, and collaborated on a children’s book, A Wee Bird Was Watching. Music, social justice, Scotland’s landscape, and ideas from the natural world are of deep interest to her in all her work: she’s been part other collaborative ventures, among them the Darwin Song Project and The Lost Words: Spell Songs.

Word has just come at this writing that Laws of Motion is on the longlist for the SAY Awards, one of Scotland’s top awards for album of the year.

Photograph of Karine Polwart courtesy of Borealis Records.

You may also wish to see
Eight Songwriters and a Scientist: a story about the Darwin Song Project at Perceptive Travel
Scotland’s Music: Karine Polwart: Traces.
Scotland’s Music: Hamish Napier: The River

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Ireland, Scotland, and Story: Allt from Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley, Zoe Conway, and John McIntyre

Music is story. Story told in word, stories held in melody and harmony, through voice, instrument, and language. Those are aspects of music that Julie Fowlis, Êamon Doorley, Zoe Conway, and John McIntyre investigate and respect in their recording Allt.

The stories they choose to explore for this recording come from the traditions of Ireland and Scotland. There are songs and tunes from history, alongside songs with words from contemporary and historic poetry for which the musicians have made new music, and new compositions of their own creation drawing on traditional style.

That may sound like quite a bit to pack into a cohesive whole on a recording of eleven tracks. It is, and if anyone is well qualified to take that on, it is these four.

Each of these musicians is well known for a particular aspect of their creative gifts. Those come into play here -- and they each go beyond those to share other aspects of their talents. Julie Fowlis is known as a lead singer; here she sings harmony and plays whistles as well. Êamon Doorley’s work on the bouzouki has marked him as one of the best on that instrument in the Celtic world. Here he sings and plays fiddle as well. Zoe Conway is well known and much in demand for her work on Irish fiddle and on classical violin; for this project her lead and harmony vocals and her skills on the whistles also come into play. John McIntyre, best known as a guitarist, steps up to sing here as well as adding in his piano skills.

As the recording opens, each takes it in turn to lead the music, and they each step in to support the others as the music progresses. Fowlis sings lead on Port Dannsaidh Hiortach the lively Saint Kilda Dance Song, which is paired with Deora Dé, a tune from Conway. You can hear Conway’s singing on Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa, a gentle, searching ballad with words by Máirtín Ó Direáin whose title means I will Find Solace. McIntyre steps up for a song called An Ghaelige, which as its title might suggest is in praise of (and in part lament for) the language. This is followed by a set which sees two tunes by Doorley bookending one by Conway.

Those descriptions do not begin to do justice to the thoughtful, insightful way these stories are told through music, and the way the musicians support each other. Clearly these are artists who are deeply grounded in their own gifts and tradition, and well able to focus and listen to each other as the tunes unfold.

Add to that the way this project was recorded.

"Êamon and I were fresh from recording with Calum Malcolm,” Fowlis says “and I couldn’t see past working with him again!  I enjoyed working with him so much.  He is such an intuitive engineer and enjoys recording live, and in different settings.  As a quartet, we were keen to make this a live, honest and spontaneous recording.  And that’s what happened.  Calum set it up in such a way that we felt comfortable and inspired to play.  We used vintage mics, and recorded in the round. "

The project began from conversations between the two women.

Conway comes from and still lives in County Louth in Ireland. So does McIntyre. The two are married, as are Fowlis and Doorley, who come from Scotland and Ireland respectively, and make their home in the Highlands of Scotland.

Along with Irish musician Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Fowlis presents Port, a television series which traces connections among Celtic music and musicians. “Zoe and I worked together on one of the Port series on BBC ALBA.  She came to Ross Shire in the Highlands as a visiting artist, and it was then we really got chatting (and playing!) together,” Fowlis recalls. “Our paths had crossed before, on one of Bill Whelan’s performances in Belfast for example, but this was when we really got to know one another.  Sometimes you just really click with someone, and we both said that it would be great to do more together after that shoot.”

The pair stayed in touch and began discussing ideas. They liked the idea of writing new music together, and of honouring the languages and traditions of the landscapes they knew and loved. Support from Creative Louth, The Arts Council Of Ireland, and Iomairt Columcille allowed the four musicians time to research traditional and contemporary poetry they wanted to frame with new music, and to compose that music as well. “We searched out poetry to set music to, and ideas for tunes between us and started sending ideas back and forth,” Fowlis says. “We love the tradition but also the idea of adding to the store of songs and tunes and so we quickly settled on the idea of composing new music in a traditional style.”

There are fine lively pieces -- Dúirt Bean Liom in Irish paired with the tune Ríl Eóin and Na Hú Bhithinn paired with Hó Ró Na Priobaidean in Scottish Gaelic show the musicians’ joy in picking up the pace. A more reflective piece is Air an Somme, with words by Donald MacDonald.

There are instances of fine harmony work through many tracks on the project. This comes to the fore especially on the closing piece, An t-Earrach Thiar, a title which translates as spring in the west.

Bringing together tradition and inspiration, along with respect for language, history, and place: Julie Fowlis, Êamon Doorley, Zoe Conway and John McIntyre have created a lasting legacy with their work on Allt. "There are such beautiful poems out there, some hundreds of years old, some contemporary, and we felt really inspired to set these words to new music to bring them to life as songs, " Julie Fowlis says.

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis and Muireann Nic Amhloaoibh made an album exploring connections between songs in Scottish Gaelic and Irish called Dual.
Alterum from Julie Fowlis
Êamon Doorley is a member of the band Danu. Learn about their album Buan.

Photograph of Zoe Conway and John McIntyre and Julie Fowlis courtesy of the artists. Photograph of Eamon Doorleys by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Scotland's Music: Hamish Napier: The Railway

Trains.

Perhaps you ride one every day on your way to work or school. Maybe you take a lighthearted ride at holiday time. Perhaps you know trains mainly from children’s toys or pictures in books.

Trains hold a combination of grit and romance. They pass through landscapes, and are part of them. Trains help create community, and communities. Trains and train tracks are of the present, and evoke stories of other times.

Whatever way you’ve come to know trains, you will find much to enjoy in Hamish Napier’s recording The Railway.

He draws from the stories of one specific railway line in one specific place and time, the Great North of Scotland Railway in the Speyside region of Scotland’s Highlands. To research ideas that would inspire his music, he read accounts of the railway’s history. He interviewed three men who had worked the railway, all now in their nineties and with many stories to tell. He walked the landscapes the trains had traversed, and drew on his own memories of growing up in the Speyside area.

That grounding in specifics allows the tunes and songs to reach beyond the Great North Railway’s story and draw in the imagination of anyone who has ever taken a train journey, or dreamed of taking one.

Hamish Napier is a composer, performer, and music tutor who grew up in the northeast Highlands of Scotland. His main instruments are the piano and the flute. He has supported musicians including Gary Innes, Eddi Reader, Karen Matheson, and Donald Shaw, appearing often in concert and on more than forty recordings. His own recording The River explores and celebrates landscapes, experiences, and people along the River Spey.

When he was performing music from that recording in a series of concerts across Scotland, the new owners of Grantown East: Highland Heritage and Cultural Centre came to one of the shows and knew that Napier was just the person to compose the soundtrack to go along with their project, the restoration of the Grantown East Railway Station into a place marking this history of this Highland railway line, which had ceased operation in the 1960s.

The music on The Railway indeed takes listeners on a journey -- several journeys, rather. The opener, The Speyside Line, draws one in to a musical journey with cadences which suggest Highland landscape. The Firebox, as lively and flickering as its title may suggest, draws on the history of the steam powered trains and the stories told to Hamish by driver Jimmy Gray, driver Jocky Hay, and signalman James Telfer. So does a tale of races between trains back in the day called Jocky the Mole, which is a song with lyrics Hamish’s brother, Findlay Napier.

Fire and water, smoke and steam
A train is like a living thing
Driver, engine, fireman
It takes us three to make her sing

Findlay sings in the chorus as the story unfolds.

The lighthearted tune Cheery Groove pays tribute to Hamish and Findlay’s parents and their home at Number 2 Cherry Grove, where it’s said many great house ceilidhs were to be had.

Mixing respect for history with love for the land and its people and regret for some changes seen, there’s another song with lyrics from Findlay called The World Came In by Rail...

We walk along the railway line
Among birch and wild rose
And all that’s left are outposts
Of an empire no one knows

A different look at a related idea is found in the tune The Old Ways, a slow march written to honour those who respect and keep up the traditional crafts, stories, language -- and music -- of, Napier writes in the sleeve notes “what is unique and special about our culture.”

Those joining Hamish Napier on the recording include Fraser Stone on percussion, Gillian Frame on backing vocals, James Lindsay on double bass, and Patsy Reid on fiddle. There are also cameo appearances by the sounds of a fireplace, Broomhill sheep, and whistle, brakes, wheels, and other railway sounds. Andrea Gobbi co-produced the album with Napier and recorded and mixed it. You will also enjoy the album artwork and design, which are by Somhairle MacDonald.

There are many more gems among the music -- every track is a keeper, and the journeys of history, music, landscape, and reflection are well worth the taking as Hamish Napier has organized them. He draws things to a close with The Railwayman, and three part suite inspired by the story of driver Jimmy Gray’s career on the railway.

Take the journey on The Railway. Take all of the journeys offered through this music. You’ll come away with much to reflect on and much to enjoy.

Also of note: at this writing word comes that Hamish Napier is at work on his third album, to be called The Woods.

You may also wish to see
Hamish Napier: The River
Eddi Reader: Cavalier
Scotland’s music: Sarah-Jane Summers: Solo

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Scotland's Music: Eddi Reader: Cavalier

Through music, through lyric, and through ideas, you can always count on Eddi Reader to lead a journey worth the taking. On her recording Cavalier that includes travels to ancient texts, a song that reminds of a 1940s ballroom, a song about fishing -- and so much more -- and many other pathways, byways, and excursions. Through it all Reader’s gorgeous voice and poetic choices guide a journey which makes a confident whole.

“Star light, star light, how long did it take you to get here tonight...” Reader sings in a song by Boo Hewerdine that will have you imagining a night sky filled with stars as much as it will have you thinking about how light -- from stars and otherwise -- passes by. There is a song in memory of hr former partner that is filled with image and story and poetry.

Do you remember the song Perfect? In the late 1980s when Reader sang with the group Fairground Attraction, it was their big hit. Reader still often sings it in concert. The song Wonderful, which is on this recording, draws from that same well of uplifting emotion with substance backed by a melody you will find yourself listening to and perhaps singing along with, as well. Reader and her husband John Douglas wrote it.

There are more gems in the sixteen tracks -- that song about fishing, for one. Go Wisely arose from Reader’s experiences as the parent of children who were becoming adults. Meg o’ the Glen is a lively re-imagining of an older text, something Reader does elsewhere on Cavalier. Take especial note of Pangur Ban, a story with words drawn directly from a medieval poem from Ireland, as a monk contemplated the similarities between the work he did hunting words and the work his cat did...hunting mice.

It’d hardly be an Eddi Reader recording without a reference to Robert Burns. She draws the music on Cavalier together, and to a close, with a quiet, conversational take on A Man’s a Man for A’ That. It, like all the songs on the album, invites more than one listen.

It is certainly Reader’s voice and vision which anchor the music. Reader and Douglas invited a number of musical friends along, however, to help them realize that vision. Among them are folk you’ve met here along the music road in the past, including John McCusker, Phil Cunningham, John Joe Kelly, Siobhan Miller, and Euan Burton.

Photograph of Eddi Reader at Celtic Connections by Kerry Dexter, made with permission. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Singer, poet, Scotland: Eddi reader and Rober Burns
Scotand's music: Emily Smith: Echoes
Eddi Reader sings the songs of Robert Burns

Your support at Music Road is most welcome, and
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Scotland's Music: Patsy Reid: A Glint o' Scottish Fiddle

A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle—that is the name Patsy Reid has chosen for her most recent recording. It is a title that fits the music she’s chosen. It fits  the point in her work she’s chosen to record a new solo album, too.  

The sets – there are ten of them -- include both music from the tradition and more recently composed music.  

Reid was a founding member of the award winning group Breabach. Time came when she chose to step back from that work – and what she stepped into was a career as one of the most in demand fiddle players and arrangers working in Scotland.

 

She has visited India a number of times and collaborated with Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi musicians. She’s played with Zakir Hussein’s Pulse of the World in London, with the Celtic big band The Unusual Suspects, and participated in the Cecil Sharpe Project.  

At the 2018 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow she appeared as part of Scotland's Wild Heart, at Innes White’s New Voices concert, and in support of award winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis. Recently she supported US folk and country songwriter Gretchen Peters at the Southern Fried Festival in Perth. Reid has also worked on record and in performance with Donald Shaw, RANT, Ross Ainslie, Ali Hutton, Robyn Stapleton, Hamish Napier, and others.  

It’s been several years since Reid last released a solo album ( Brightest Path, in 2014). She has had in mind and been working on another solo album for some time. As much as she loves creating music with others, she wanted to focus on her own sound for a bit. “I had reached a stage where I could see myself only working on other people’s projects and never having enough time to so something of my own. So I’m taking the risk that I might have to say no to something exciting, and I’m investing in my own music. I wouldn’t want to regret not giving myself the chance to do that,” she said.  

For her listeners, and one would expect, for her own musical path, A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle proves a worthwhile investment. Update: patsy has also co;;abrates with cellist Alice Allen on two Strathspey Queens albums. If ever you have the hcance to see the two of them play that music live, take it.

The music Reid chose for this recording was in some ways a look back. It includes music she's known since childhood, and pieces she learned and played while attending Alasdair Fraser’s fiddle camps, winning the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship, and studying for her university degrees.   

That's not to say these are simple tunes, nor is the feeling nostalgic. What Reid offers is a clear eyed and clear hearted take on a well chosen gathering of tunes which move within the history of the fiddle in Scotland and at times reach its diaspora.  

The works of James Scott Skinner, Niel Gow, and the unnamed composers of Scotland’s long held fiddle traditions were companions of Reid's own learning and of her finding her own sound in music. She has repaid that favor, honoring the tunes while adding her own mark to them.  

Most of the tunes come from Scotland’s east coast traditions, whether they are from the likes of named composers or not.  Reid well knows how to balance tunes which invite the step of the dancer with those which suggest the more contemplative and thoughful side of the life of Scotland.  

The opener for the first set, Strathearn, is a strathspey from the tradition with which Reid invites thoughts of the wilder sort of Scotland’s landscape and weather, before heading into a lively collection of old reels. Another notable set includes The Quartz Jig from Grainne Brady, The Double Rise, composed by Phil Cunningham, and Halloween Jig composed by Donald Shaw. Two more especially outstanding tunes are the haunting slow air Mrs. Jameson’s Favourite and a nod to the late Angus R. Grant with his composition 2:50 to Vigo.  

On these as through all the tracks, Reid is accompanied by Alastair Iain Patterson on piano. This makes an excellent collaboration which allows both participants to be fully in service to the music, and to their creativity.  

Every set on A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle is a keeper. It’s no wonder Reid is in such demand as a collaborator for concerts and recordings. It’s great that she also chooses to take the time and focus to create solo projects as well. If you’ve interest in the fiddle, the music of Scotland, or fine acoustic music well played, then A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle is your album.  

A note on the photos: I was fortunate to be at the Celtic Connections concert in 2018 when Reid and Patterson debuted this album. That’s where these photos were made.  

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis: Alterum
Hamish Napier: The River
Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All

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Scotland's Music: Hamish Napier: The River

Rivers were some of the earliest ways people traveled, connected, and explored. They were also, quite possibly, part of the first music people heard, and made. These aspects of rivers have held true through history, and still do today.

Hamish Napier grew up alongside a river, the Spey, in northern Scotland. His family fished explored and traveled the Spey, and its music formed the background to Hamish’s learning on the instruments he’d make his own, flute and piano. 

Hamish is a well respected player, composer, and teacher who has worked with many of Scotland’s top musicians, some of whom you’ve met here along the Music Road, among them Karen Matheson, Emily Smith, and Eddi Reader.

A few years back he was commissioned to compose an hour of music as part of the New Voices strand at Celtic Connections. Others who have been asked to compose for that well respected strand include Nuala Kennedy, Hannah Fisher, Maireard Green, and Sarah-Jane Summers.    

Hamish turned to his past and present experiences of the River Spey for ideas, creating the music which would become the recording called The River. . These ideas he framed in a range of traditional music – reel, jig, strathspey, slow air, and more – weaving his ideas about aspects of the river’s voice and history to create a new story which becomes lasting.

 

That new story is drawn from traditions of the music of Scotland, and traditions, both of nature and man made, along the river.    

If you’ve ever seen a water bug dart above flowing water, you will appreciate The Mayfly. With the tune called The Dance, Napier reflects on the changes in ways a river flows, and the connections it makes as it does so. In the sleeve notes for The River he remarks that “The natural cycle of the river is one epic, glorious and ever changing dance… everything around us is interconnected and flowing.”  

Flute, piano, and keyboards are how Hamish Napier speaks about this this dance, from whirlpools to the story of floating down the river now and in the past, from the sweep if the Spey’s course to the small conversations of those humans who are part of its life.

There is light (listen out for the tune called Huy Huy, and the vigorous dance of the salmon in Out to Sea) and there is shadow in life along and within the Spey, as well.

Napier takes account of the shadow side especially through two tunes. The Drowning of the Silver Brothers, 1933, which was inspired by a somewhat mysterious tragedy, and Iasgairean nan Neanhnaid (The Pearlfishers). The second of those is in the form of a . warning pibroch – a piper’s warning call. The idea came both from a childhood experience of encountering those who were making destructive raids on the river’s freshwater mussel beds to take their pearls, and, some years further on, considering what effects pollution may be having on the river.  

The eleven tracks on The River . draw to a close with two pieces which in various ways bring together the stories and the music Napier creates of the journey. There’s the lively Speycast (Part 1) through which you can well imagine the arc of fly casting on the Spey – particularly as one needs to take into account not snagging one’s line on the trees growing along its banks. Spey Cast (Part 2) bursts into joyous celebration of a lively and lighthearted raft race that takes place on the Spey.

 

As creator and composer, Napier has well chosen his companions on this river journey. Sarah Hayes adds alto flute, James Lindsay plays double bass, Martin O'Neill is on bodhran, Andrea Gobbi does synths and post-production, and Calum MacCrimmon, rather than playing the pipes as he often does, in this case sings Canntaireachd as part of that warning pibroch of The Pearlfishers. Natural sounds oystercatchers, blackbirds, curlews, heron, and the River Spey itself also take part. Classy, intricate artwork and the design of the album come from Somhairle MacDonald.        

You could enjoy these pieces  knowing nothing of the River Spey and the landscape in the north east of Scotland which frames it – but the stories Hamish Napier has has chosen to tell through his instruments will draw you into the land and the life of and along this river, and, perhaps, enlarge your vision of other rivers and watersides you may encounter.    

Hamish Napier has been working on another recording project since The River was released. It also has to do with life in the northeast of Scotland, but in a rather different way: it is called The Railway . The Railway and at this writing is planned to be released in August. I hope to bring you more about that recording then – meanwhile, here is more about The Railway ..

Photos by Peter Trimming and Kerry Dexter  

You may also wish to see  
Scotland’s Music: Emily Smith: Echoes .
Ainie Minogue: In the Name of Stillness .
Julie Fowlis: Alterum .      

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